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Editorial Reviews

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On the great continuum of tough-but-smart, hard-but-sensitive country-western singer-songwriters, Guy Clark cut his notch after Jimmy Rogers, Hank Williams, and Johnny Cash, and, before Roseanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, and Lyle Lovett. Making a name more from his pen than his voice, Clark is cut from the same sun-parched and wind-chapped Texas realm that yielded Townes Van Zandt. And with a hint of a bohemian (if not quite hippie) sensibility mixed in with his L.A./Nashville new country glide, Clark's work suggests what might have come from Gram Parsons had he survived the '70s. Craftsman is a 2 CD reissue comprised of three consecutive records Clark laid down for Warner Brothers between 1978 and 1983: Guy Clark, The South Coast of Texas, and Better Days. The entire trilogymines a hefty 30 songs from Clark's most prolific, and most successful, period as a recording artist. For those who came to country on the Garth Brooks wave Craftsman sounds like it could have been recorded yesterday, or for that matter, forty years ago. There's bits of all country flavors on Craftsman: from the Jimmy Buffett easy adult sounds of Crowell's "Voilà, An American Dream" to the dry and scathing late-Dylanisms of "Fool on the Roof Blues," the country of "The Houston Kid," and the elegant western pop of "Fools For Each Other" and "Shade Of All Greens." No adolescent angst here, Craftsman is for listeners who've already grown up. --Roni Sarig

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

This is a valuable compilation of Guy Clark's three Warner Brothers CDs. Alas, these are not Mr. Clark's best outtings. His first Warners effort, the self-titled Guy Clark, was a real mess, featuring lots of songs by other songwriters -- always a bad sign for an singer-songwriter who is more the latter than the former. His second turn on Warners, South Coast of Texas, produced by fellow songwriter Rodney Crowell, was the best of the lot, featuring sharp songwriting and a nice understated production style. Better Days, the final of the 3 Warner LPs, featured a great flock of songs (including two of his best ever, "Homegrown Tomatos" and "Randall Knife"), but the production, again by Crowell, was a little too heavy, an overt attempt to garner country airplay.Clark's first two recordings on RCA, and his subsequent work on Sugar Hill and Asylum, are more representative than these recordings. But, for a completist, Craftsman is a way to get three recordings in one fell swoop. Undoubtedly, this collection won't stay in print long, so you are advised to act soon if you want to take advantage of this bargain-priced set.A big-time "boo" to Robert K. Oermann, apparently the only person allowed to write liner notes for country music reissues. As always, he gets an awful lot wrong here (example: suggesting that South Coast of Texas predated Crowell's work as a producer for Rosanne Cash and Cissy Spacek), and provides little new detail nto Clark's career or these CDs. (Can't the writer assume that anyone buying this set already knows who Guy Clark is?) The tale of how a visionary poet like Clark both resisted and failed to resist being remade as a Warner Communicator is probably a very interesting one. Unfortunately, the liner notes don't let us in on that secret...

For those who don't know Guy Clark's music, or only know his recent works, Craftsman is an essential and delightful find. His three early albums put together for this re-release give a complete overview of who Clark is and what he writes about. An absolute must to know the complete Clark musical history.

Aptly named. Craftsman is what this consumate song stylist and writer is. Most of these songs you know as sung from other artists. None are styled or done proper when you here the phasing of the author. His songs are original, and range from heartfelt ballads, to the humorus, to toe tapp`n. The word troubadour in the dictionary must include his name. He`s the "Deacon" of country music.